The decision will create barriers in the exchange of expertise as the European tech & industry needs free movement of workers and services to close the skills gap.
Last night the European Council reached an agreement on its position on the Revision of the Posting of Workers Directive.
The posting of workers and the right to provide services cross-border in the EU can be problematic in some sectors. There is a common agreement that abuse and fraud should be tackled wherever it happens. Ironically, last night’s agreement is exactly not doing that. The Directive is extended to all sectors – thus also to the innovative industries Ceemet represents – instead of focusing on specific sector that cause problems. The principle ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it‘ hasn’t been considered.
By consequence, the revised Directive will:
- Cause major practical problems by imposing all remuneration elements rendered mandatory by the host member state in accordance with its national law, regulation, collective agreements, etc.
- Create barriers for the secondments of highly specialised experts in long-term projects as the duration of 18 months is far too short for manufacturing;
- Dump companies with a massive administrative burden as they will have to consider a plethora of collective agreements at local, regional, provincial and / or national level before posting a worker. Yet again, another barrier to exchange knowledge and expertise amongst EU countries.
Ceemet’s Director General Uwe Combüchen warns that “In a world where industry is being exposed to global competition and skills mismatch, the new Directive creates additional complexity which eventually will hamper intelligence and best practice exchange between smaller companies and member states.”